Research Methods Test 1
When an hypothesis is stated in such a way that the event to be explained becomes the explanation itself (e.g., the child is distractible because he has attention deficit disorder), the hypothesis is said to be
circular
Scientific skepticism refers to the idea that
claims about phenomena should be tested and untestable claims should be rejected
Which of the following characteristics is most assured when scientists use operational definitions to communicate?
clarity of meaning
Which of the following is not one of the conditions for making a causal inference?
cofounding of variables
Most recently, the dominant psychological perspective for understanding people's behavior and mental processes is
cognitive psychology
An important factor in the advancement of cognitive psychology during the 20th century was the
computer revolution
When intelligence is defined by specifying a paper-and-pencil test emphasizing understanding of logical relationships and familiarity with the meaning of words, intelligence is being defined with a(n)
operational definition
What characteristic distinguishes scientific hypotheses from casual, everyday hypotheses?
testability
Scientists would likely reject the hypothesis that a person was violent because the person was possessed by the Devil. Scientists reject a hypothesis like this one not because it is inherently wrong, but because the hypothesis lacks the necessary scientific characteristic of being
testable
Which of the following is a characteristic of the scientific method?
testable hypotheses
That a search of the psychological literature usually reveals that other persons have investigated the same question we are studying reveals
that science is a cumulative endeavor
In order to make decisions about ethical dilemmas in research, psychologists consult
the American Psychological Association's ethical principles
In a study examining the number of proofreading errors made when students are tested while reading under bright or dim lighting, the number of proofreading errors represents the
dependent variable
Which of the following statements if false?
A multi method approach to a research question allows researchers to overcome the flaws associated with any one particular method
Which of the following statements is false?
Scientists strive to draw conclusions based on empirical evidence rather than subjective judgments
Which of the following statements is false regarding searching the psychological literature before beginning a research project?
The process of conducting a literature search should be discouraging for a researcher who finds that other researchers have investigated the same or similar ideas
The idea that people purchase "green" products in order to achieve higher status by behaving altruistically is
a hypothesis
Two students each conduct a study to answer a research question about study skills and test performance. One student conducts a survey and the other student conducts an experiment. In terms of psychological science, their use of different methods for answering the research question is consistent with
a multi method approach
One disadvantage that results from the use of operational definitions is that
a potentially limitless number of operational definitions exists for any construct
The statement of a research hypothesis includes
a predicted outcome and an explanation for the outcome
An operational definition of a construct is
a specific procedure for producing or measuring the construct
A researcher calibrates an instrument by placing a five-pound weight on a scale to see if the scale gives a reading of 5.0 pounds. The researcher is testing the scale's
accuracy
Which of the following characteristics applies to a measurement that consistently discriminates between high and low scorers on a test?
accuracy
When using psychological measurement of a dimension such as aggression, psychologists base their measurements of people's aggressiveness on
agreement among a number of observers regarding their ratings of behavior on an aggressiveness scale
A research question may e considered important when
all of these
A researcher's hypothesis predicts that people are more aggressive following expresser to media violence because they find the violence disturbing. A potential problem with this hypothesis is
all of these
According to some clinical psychologists, the practice of present-day clinical psychology
all of these
Suppose a friend tells you about psychological research findings she read about on the internet, and because of the findings she is convinced that she should try some new communication techniques in her relationship. You tell her you are skeptical because
all of these
The "scientific method" refers to
an abstract concept that describes the logic and methods used to answer questions
When using an empirical approach, psychologists focus on
behaviors and experiences that can be observed directly
Psychological scientists believe that
both research conducted in laboratories or in real-world settings is important
Which of the following statements about the historical context of psychology is true?
by investigating a wide array of topics over time, psychologists have demonstrated the complexity of human behavior
A(n) _________ is a statement about the cause of an event or behavior.
causal inference
Researchers have shown that teacher evaluations based on brief viewings of videotapes made by students who were not enrolled in a course correlate well with end-of-the-semester teacher evaluations made by students enrolled in the class. The researchers suggest that the relationship occurs because people are attuned to pick up information about a person's affect quickly because this information is adaptive. Based on the correlational evidence alone, the researchers' explanation for their findings can best be considered a
causal inference
A researcher wanted to compare the relative effectiveness of two techniques for reducing anxiety: a drug and a relaxation exercise. The control group was given neither the drug nor the exercise. The difference between the drug and the relaxation exercise cannot be compared in this experiment because the experiment involves a
confounding
When two potentially effective independent variables are allowed to covary simultaneously, a _______ has occurred.
confounding
Reliability refere to the __________ of measurement, and validity refers to the __________ of measurement.
consistency, truthfulness
The term scientists use to refer to a psychological concept is
construct
The essential ingredient of scientific observation is
control
Psychologists use _________ to identify the causes of a phenomenon.
controlled experiments
Research has indicated that amount of undergraduate research activity is a predictor of later success in the profession of psychology. For this prediction to be possible, undergraduate research activity and later success must be
correlated
Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between correlation and causation?
correlation does not imply causation
The research goal of "prediction" is most associated with ______ research, and the research goal of "explanation" is most associated with _______ research.
correlational, experimental
In an experiment that compares aggressive responses following exposure to media violence in television programming, "aggressive responses" is the __________ and "exposure to media violence" is the __________.
dependent variable; independent variable
The criteria used to classify and define mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders represent an illustration of which of the following goals of the scientific method?
description
The four goals of research in psychology are
description, prediction, explanation, and application
Psychologists seek to improve people's lives by
developing theories and conducting research
The empirical approach used in the scientific method is based on
direct observation and experimentation
The most important characteristic of the scientific method is the
empirical approach
As an approach to knowledge, the scientific method relies on
empirical procedures
Using the nomothetic approach, psychologists seek to
establish general law of behavior that apply to a diverse population
A source of bias that may originate when we attempt to understand another culture through the framework or lens of our own culture is called
ethnocentrism
Violations of scientific integrity include
fabricating data, reporting only the data that support the researcher's expectations, and failure to acknowledge people who contributed significantly to the research
The strongest research evidence for a claim about behavior occurs when
findings converge across many replications of an experiment
When scientists conduct research they seek to
generalize their findings beyond the people and circumstances used in their study
An important first step when evaluating psychological research reported in the media is to
go to the original source in which the research was reported
The ethical principles for research developed by the American Psychological Association
guide researchers regarding the ethical dilemmas that occur with human and animal research subjects
If a researcher wants to do a study to show that active learning strategies help students learn she should
have one teacher teach one group of students with active learning strategies and have a different teacher teach a second group of students with a method that did not use active learning strategies, then compare the performance of the two groups
Three ways that we can characterize the context in which science occurs include
historical, social/cultural, and moral
The testable, tentative explanations scientists use to explain events are called
hypotheses
Prior to conducting a research project, scientists for a _______, a tentative explanation for the phenomenon they seek to investigate.
hypothesis
The nomothetic approach in psychology (or in any science) is intended to establish broad generalizations and universal "laws." When using the nomothetic approach researchers are likely to make
observations of many individuals and focus on the average (typical) score
When scientists report their findings they strive to describe
only what they have observed
A researcher asks a sample of 200 individuals to complete a questionnaire. She then computes statistics such as means and standard deviations to describe how individuals respond in general. This researcher's approach is
idiographic and quantitative
Which of the following is a cognitive bias that can interfere with our ability to consider evidence appropriately because we perceive a relationship when none exists?
illusory correlation
A potential problem that arises when evaluating research findings presented in the media (e.g., television, newspapers) is that
important aspects of the research method are likely not reported
In a study investigating the effects of two different types of music on students' test performance, the music represents the
independent variable
If you describe that a small rodent "chewed" an index card and "ate" a cookie when what you observed in these two situations was essentially the same, your report likely includes
inferences
The factors that the researcher controls or manipulates in order to determine their effect on behavior are called the
intervening variables
The main difference between physical measurement and psychological measurement is that physical measurement
involves dimensions with agreed upon standards and instruments
When considering a possible research question to investigate, a student wishes to seek advise from psychology instructors about whether to conduct a study to answer the research question. Which of the following questions would help the student identify whether the research question is a good one?
is this question important for the science of psychology?
A psychology student watches a television program that mentions research on newborn infants' ability to recognize their parents' voices. To learn more about this study, the student should
locate and read the original research article that describes the research
Correlations are valuable because they allow psychologists to
make predictions based on the way two variables covary
In a recent criticism of the practice of clinical psychologists, all of the following suggestions were made except
make some clinical psychology training programs non-scientific to keep psychology balanced
The primary means that scientists use to establish control in their observations is to
manipulate an independent variable in an experiment
When research consists of verbal summaries of "naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural settings" the research is
more likely to be qualitative research than quantitative research
The "multi method approach" to research in psychology refers to the
multiple strategies available to psychologists to answer research questions
The development of psychophysical methods and reaction time experiments at the end of the 19th century was important to emerging field of psychology because these methods
paved the way for psychology to become a quantifiable, laboratory-based science
At the end of the 19th century, the young field of psychology was a sub discipline of
philosophy
A student has carefully selected the clock she will use to time the presentation of materials in her experiment. She wants to be sure that she will be able to measure the times to within a hundredth of a second rather than a tenth of a second. Which characteristic of the instrument is the student trying to ensure?
precision
A correlational study is uniquely useful for meeting which of the following goals of the scientific method?
prediction
Which of the following characterizes the majority of the research conducted in psychology?
quantitative research using the nomothetic approach
A new measure of intelligence (e.g., how long people can balance a ball on their nose) would be a valid measure of intelligence if scores on the new measure were
related to scores on other accepted measures of intelligence
An individual's score on a test such as the SAT represents how that person consistently performs on such a test only if the SAT test is
reliable
An example of a violation of scientific integrity is
selectively reporting research findings when making a claim about behavior
The broad trend that describes the historical development of scientific psychology may be characterized as
shifts in theoretical perspectives from behaviorism, to cognitive perspectives, to neuroscience emphases
A key factor when "thinking like a researcher" is to be
skeptical
A researcher's findings are criticized in the media because the findings are regarded as unacceptable. The research program is suspended. This is an example of the ___________ context of science.
social-cultural
A researcher is interested in testing the effectiveness of a new approach to leading discussion groups in his classes. He assigns all the females in one of his classes to use the new discussion method and all the males to use the old discussion method. The researcher will not be able to interpret the results because his study is flawed due to
the confounding of gender and discussion method
The parallel in attempting to understand truth based on legal evidence and scientific evidence is that in both cases
the decisions we make depend on the quality and extent of evidence
When researchers observe a correlation between two variables, such as between the amount of time spent studying and test scores, they know that
the first variable causes the second variable
Public criticism of psychological research seems to occur primarily when
the research findings go against strongly held personal beliefs
The social-cultural context in which research takes places influences psychological research by affecting
the resources available for psychological research
Scientists' choice of topics to study, resources available to support their research, and society's acceptance of their findings is most influenced by
the social and cultural context in which they work
Before beginning a research project, researchers should search the psychological literature about their topic
to stop the research if the study or a similar one has already been done
A correlation exists when
two measures of the same people, events, or things vary together
Researchers are more likely to achieve reliable observations when
two observers show agreement in their descriptions of an event
Which of the following is an accepted check that scientists can use to determine whether a scientific report is unbiased?
verification by more than one independent observer
Date fabrication, plagiarism, and failure to acknowledge individuals who contributed to a research project are examples of
violations of scientific integrity
Based on investigations with the horse Clever Hans, an important factor researchers should seek to control when testing whether dogs can sniff cancer in urine samples is
whether, during testing, the dogs can see people who know which samples cam from cancer patients